Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/593

 wise, however, that the horn in which the foetus is lodged is larger than the other.

The conception or ovum is single, Avhether one or several embryos are evolved from it; and it extends, as already said, into both of the horns, so that it presents itself with the shape of a double pudding, or rather of a single pudding having a constriction in its middle. Proceeding rounded and slender from the upper extremity of one of the horns, the conception gradually enlarges, and is produced into that common cavity which in the human female is called the uterus or matrix ; (because, by conceiving and cherishing her offspring in this place the woman is made a mother ;) the conception of the deer, passing through a kind of isthmus in the body of the uterus, is narrowed; but by and by, escaping into the other cornu, it there expands at first, but anon contracts again, and finally ends as it began in a tapering extremity. The whole conception, therefore, taken out entire, resembles a wallet filled with water on either side ; and hence the chorion is also called allantois, because the conception in the lower animals, such as the deer, looks like an intestine inflated, or stuffed and tied in the middle.

In the embryo anatomized at this period every internal part is seen distinct and perfect; particularly the stomach, intes- tines, heart, kidneys, and lungs, which, divided into lobes, but having the proper form of the organs, look bloody. The colour of the lungs is deeper than it is in those foetuses that have breathed, because the lungs, dilated by the act of respiration, assume a whiter tint. And by this indication is it known whether a mother has brought forth a living or dead child ; in the former case the colour of the lungs is changed, and the change remains though the infant have died immediately after- wards.

In the female foetus the testes improperly so called are seen situated near the kidneys at the extremities of the cornua uteri on either side ; they are relatively of larger size than in the adult, and, like the caruncles of the uterus, look white.

In the stomach of the foetus there is a watery fluid contained, not unlike that in which it swims, but somewhat more turbid or less transparent. It resembles the milk that begins to be secreted in the breasts of pregnant women about the fourth or